Yesterday, I was irritated by the fact that both 242 & 242k printers were supposed to work (green signs), so I sent my document to 242k (default), went to the print room and saw a guy in front of me who’s document has just caused a network problem (error 33 I believe) on the 242k printer. I wish I would have sent it to 242 instead (or both) because as a result of the malfunctioning printer, I had to make one more trip back to a carrel and back to the print room.

I wrote on the poster that we should have an option (in print release stations) to manually change the output printer on demand. That would be handy especially in cases of 242k or 242 not working and the other printer working. The green/red signs are great but they cannot be updated realtime. Thence from now on, I do not trust them until I see a printer working on my own.

Anyways, so today I see that somebody wrote a comment “Amazing Idea” next to my original post. I wonder if it was a staff member (and so we might actually see an improvement in possibilities of our print-release software) or it was another student standing behind the idea. In the later case of two, I would like to speak up hoping that a qualified staff member will provide a feedback.

Often I print from a computer only to find that the printer I have chosen is out of order. How about a twitter account devoted to middlebury printers that displays what printers are out of order or offline, so students could check before they click print. This twitter account could easily be updated by the help desk or the tech center.